In other news, daughter misses last opportunity to see dying mother because crew delayed departure of plane... aka a good deed never goes unpunished... aka you don't know how badly the passenger who doesn't cry needs their flight to leave on time... aka there's a reason why airlines are actually not too thrilled when that kind of thing happens.

This is certainly not the first time that a last flight of the day somewhere has been held to allow passengers to make the connection. US Airways seems to do it frequently. It just doesn't get the press.

Quoting phxa340 (Reply 3):Wow man thanks for being such a downer - give United credit. But thanks for the negativity !

The article describes the incident as something "that almost never happens," which is completely false. Flights, especially the final departures of the day, are routinely delayed awaiting (delayed) incoming passengers. Nor does there have to be a special reason. Unfortunately, we typically only hear about those occasions in which a flight stands passengers, which makes normal things seem so non-normal.

Quoting D L X (Reply 2): last flight of the day somewhere has been held to allow passengers to make the connection.

Quoting compensateme (Reply 4):The article describes the incident as something "that almost never happens," which is completely false.

Airlines hold flights all the time if a whole lot of pax are late (say, an intl flight with 20ish pax connecting to another flight gets in late for some reason), especially if the connecting flight is the last flight of the day. The reason why it says "that almost never happens" is because it is extremely rare for an airline to hold a flight for just one person, and if it does happen, its for a VIP, celebrity, sometimes a UM, but never for this circumstance. And it's because of this circumstance that the UA employees went above and beyond to help this man.

And it's stuff like this that make me proud to say my parents work for UA and that I want to be a UA pilot.

I've done it before twice as a gate agent. A passenger's wife was in a car accident, he came running to the ticket counter 10 minutes prior to the last departure of the day. Our station sold him a ticket, got him expedited through security, and onto the aircraft which only left 5 minutes late. We explained to the flight crew what was happening and they were all okay with waiting.

Second time a man came to me at the ticket counter around 20 minutes prior to the next departure and told me he had a family emergency and needed to get to Calgary as soon as possible. We went through the same process and got him on the next flight which still made it out of the gate on time. A couple months later, the same passenger was flying Continental, but spotted me in the terminal and came up to me. He asked me if I remembered him, which at the time I didn't, until he told me he had to thank me, because it was because of me he was able to get to Calgary and to the hospital to see his wife one last time just moments before she passed away. Those words will stay with me forever.

As much negativity that my airline gets, we do have employees who care.

I remember an NZ domestic flight diverted briefly to another town (Kind of along the way) because one of the PAX's son was transfered to another hospital after a car crash. The PAX was originally going to see the son at the destination but word got through in flight that he was transfered and they diverted the flight to drop the parent off in the new town before carrying on.

Quoting TWA772LR (Reply 5):The reason why it says "that almost never happens" is because it is extremely rare for an airline to hold a flight for just one person, and if it does happen, its for a VIP, celebrity, sometimes a UM, but never for this circumstance. And it's because of this circumstance that the UA employees went above and beyond to help this man.

No, it's not rare. Yes, the chances of it happening are significantly higher if you're - for example - GS with UA, but it's routine for passengers traveling by themselves or in small groups. I've had it happen several times traveling as a non-rev -- the crew for my connecting flight (in which I cleared) saw that my incoming flight was delayed and held my connecting flight ... just for me, a non-revenue passenger. None of those delays were significant -- all were less than 15 minutes, and the flight still arrived on-time (or close to it) - but the article does not mention how long the passenger's flight was held for.

Quoting compensateme (Reply 4):The article describes the incident as something "that almost never happens," which is completely false. Flights, especially the final departures of the day, are routinely delayed awaiting (delayed) incoming passengers. Nor does there have to be a special reason.

To incriminate "United" at utterly failing in this regard... someone should tell the Air Wisconsin folks at IAD this.

Quoting Type-Rated (Reply 11):I think this story originated with the United Public Relations department. In other words, it's a plant. Companies do this kind of thing all the time.

But OTOH it was nice of UA to be able to accommodate the passenger

Nothing would surprise me. But it sure beats my image of UA after running me and my wife and fellow passnegrs all over ORD with 4 gate changes for an ORD-CLE flight that ended up 4 hours late last week, but that's the price you pay for not paying the inflated fares for a nonstop LAS-CLE flight.

In Auckland, New Zealand two weeks ago a young man was killed by a Great White shark. The mans mum was actually booked with JQ a few days later to fly from WLG-AKL to visit him. When the man's sister called JQ to change her mums ticket, JQ refused to change it for her. The mum then headed to WLG to try NZ and the local Police station called NZs WLG operations centre and informed them off the pax coming. NZ held the last seat for her on their next flight. When the mum arrived an NZ agent took her to the airlines Koru Club lounge to wait for her flight and escorted her to her seat on the plane

The way that it was reported in the news here was that JQ was prepared to change the date of travel but stated that, in line with the fare rules for the ticket, there would be a change fee. The sister did not wish to pay the change fee.

While it is true that JQ could have waived the fee, and (according to news reports here) even stated that once a death certificate was provided the fee could have been reimbursed, it is not completely true that they refused to change it. They simply insisted on the fee being paid.

I see so much crap and so much bashing of airline X or airline Y from everyone on these boards.

I dont really care if 17 of the 18 above posts want to gripe or bicker about one thing or another.

What I get from this is that United Airlines (usually the brunt of a lot of the griping) did the right thing. Plain and simple. Maybe its not that uncommon, though I suspect if they treated every passenger with the same due regard they would be the worlds best and most successful airline. Plain and simple, they did the right thing and it made the news as opposed to all the other crap that usually does.

Quoting blueflyer (Reply 1):
In other news, daughter misses last opportunity to see dying mother because crew delayed departure of plane... aka a good deed never goes unpunished... aka you don't know how badly the passenger who doesn't cry needs their flight to leave on time... aka there's a reason why airlines are actually not too thrilled when that kind of thing happens

WOW!!!! Could you be any more negative on such a nice story. What would you be doing if you did not know why the flight was delayed?

Personally I think that if any body, except for blueflyer of course, would go the extra steps to make sure that the man made his connection should be given special accolades and maybe a bonus for all those involved. The fact that the captain radioed ahead the wheels were in motion before the flight from SFO even landed makes believe in humanity and that there still good people out there.

In 1981, I sent a telex to Northwest asking if an agent could meet my CAAC flight ariving from Beijing and help with a close connection Tokyo to ORD. The telex mentioned I was flying business class, had only carry-on bags and would be the first off the CAAC flight. Northwest replied with a big negative, they could not provide that service.

The CAAC flight arrived at Narita 30 min late but taxiing in I could see a Northwest 747 still at the gate so there was hope. True to form, I was first off the CAAC flight and to my surprise, there was a Northwest agent holding a sign with my name. Can't remember if she had a scooter or we walked but within minutes I stepped on board the 747 which had all four engines running. The cabin door closed immediately after I boarded and before I could take my seat we were pushing back.

During the climb out one of the FA's came by to ask who I was? I replied just another airplane salesman and why do you ask? She said, you must be somebody really important because Northwest never holds a flight for anybody. I was a happy guy because I would make it home before Christmas.

The flight arrived on time in ORD and later I realized it was a big December tailwind that enabled the crew to delay the departure out of Narita.

It does happen more than you know about. All it takes is a pilot/gate agent/station manager to stand up and say "this is what we are going to do, this is why we are going to to it, I'll be happy to explain myself"

Sadly, there are not a lot of people that know how or when to do that. Kudos to the person calling the shots here.

Quoting kkephart13 (Thread starter):Major props to the inflight crew and ground crews for going way above and beyond so he can see his mother before she passes.

Someone wanted to take the shift on how bad UA was doing and throw in a fuzzy feel good story that media love. Next thing you know there will be uplifting quotes posted about UA on pinterest, facebook etc...let me now go meditate..hummmmmmmmm

I am afraid this goes way, way beyond pilots and ops level...
Realize that IAH/LBB is operated by ExpressJet, which means when the FA got the word of it, she told the captain, who ACARS'd the NOC dispatcher, who walked the request to the DM, who authorized the delay (otherwise EV won't get paid) and told the UAX coordinator to call EV SOC, whose duty manager told the dispatcher to tell his crew to wait for this guy.
Just giving credit where credit is due, is all.

Quoting seven3seven (Reply 17):United is just using this story for a little good press. Oh, and this crew's actions are cancelled out by the crew who booted the blogger off the flight anyway.

Amazing. Simply amazing.

Never realized the amount of negative people here, guess true colors appear anytime. I guess I shouldn't be shocked. No business is perfect and variables get in the way of trying to make that business run smooth. UA employees go above and beyond to assist someone in need (to that person going to see their mother, the greatest need they ever faced) and they are bashed.

Once again shows it is far easier to complain than to praise. As many of you so eloquently do here.

To those who see the glass as half empty, I hope that compassion is shown to you at your time in need.

Although this does happen frequently it is good to hear that all of the UA employees involved in this issue did the right thing for this passenger which gave the opportunity to say goodbye to this dying mother. The one thing that surprises me though is the fact that his luggage made the transfer at a huge hub station like IAH. Normally if you are anything less than a GS or perhaps a 1K United will hold the plane for you if it is the last flight but they hardly if ever will wait for your bags. Bag runners at United are not allowed to leave the plane until all the bags are off the plane this way United make sure no inbound bags are left behind and somehow end up placed on the outbound flight. So it is really amazing that they held the plane for his bags because that rarely happens for regular passengers who are not at the 1K status.

Quoting compensateme (Reply 8):I've had it happen several times traveling as a non-rev -- the crew for my connecting flight (in which I cleared) saw that my incoming flight was delayed and held my connecting flight ... just for me, a non-revenue passenger. None of those delays were significant -- all were less than 15 minutes, and the flight still arrived on-time (or close to it) - but the article does not mention how long the passenger's flight was held for.

Don't take this the wrong way but what airline holds a plane for NON-REV passengers? Are you sure there were no revenue passengers making the same connection you were making then they would hold the plane. In all my years of working for UA and flying non-rev I have never seen United hold a plane exclusively for NON-REV customers flying on their employee benefits passes because if they did the CS agent would have an extremely hard time explaining that delay to their manager.

Quoting EWRCabincrew (Reply 25):To those who see the glass as half empty, I hope that compassion is shown to you at your time in need.

Nicely said. I guess it's a hunting season on United, so any cheap shots are allowed. I bet people would be singing a different tune if something like this happened to them and they needed help. It's just incredible how people become "brave" hiding behind their nicknames.

Quoting phxa340 (Reply 3):Wow man thanks for being such a downer - give United credit. But thanks for the negativity !

Do you know that he's wrong? For every passenger that is helped by holding a flight, there's at least one passenger on that flight that is adversely affected (as in they are late for something important, not just because they get home late). And they might not be the type who would speak up about that.

That's not to say that the crew made the wrong decision here, but it seems like the people who are on the plane don't normally get entered into the equation, at least in the mind of the public.

Quoting blueflyer (Reply 1):
In other news, daughter misses last opportunity to see dying mother because crew delayed departure of plane... aka a good deed never goes unpunished... aka you don't know how badly the passenger who doesn't cry needs their flight to leave on time... aka there's a reason why airlines are actually not too thrilled when that kind of thing happens.

I would have to agree with you actually! You cant just go to the front of the line and ask the person there if i'ts ok to.....
We never know what impact it has on other passengers.

Quoting brilondon (Reply 20):What would you be doing if you did not know why the flight was delayed?

I'm not sure I understand your question. If I didn't know why the flight was delayed, I would put it down to the hazards of air travel, of course. Some flights are on time and others are not.

Help on the ground a passenger in need make a tight connection, or a flight about to depart, by all means. Give them all allowances to ease their travel, but never, never forget that you don't know who has an equally, or even more, valid reason for the plane to leave on time, just because one passenger cannot control his emotions while another, for human, psychological, whatever, reasons can... I know why I travel, you know why you travel, but we don't know why everyone else does, nor does the crew...

While I evidently maintain my criticism, I wouldn't go as far as branding this propaganda. For one thing, the passenger works for National Geographic Traveler and probably knows more than the rest of us how to get the attention of the media if he chooses to. For another, the story ended up in an internal employee newsletter. With close to 100,000 employees, it isn't hard to imagine one of them knows someone who knows someone, etc...

Quoting indcwby (Reply 32):Would be interesting to know if it was the Ex-CO crew who did this for the passenger vs. UA crew.......

Should it be interesting to know? I would be more on the side of someone/people who has/have compassion in their heart to help out in a terrible situation. I am far more concerned with that, regardless for whom they worked.

Quoting phxa340 (Reply 3):Wow man thanks for being such a downer - give United credit. But thanks for the negativity !

Quoting brilondon (Reply 20):WOW!!!! Could you be any more negative on such a nice story. What would you be doing if you did not know why the flight was delayed?

Negativity or not, he has a point. What if there was someone on that flight who was going to visit his/her dying mom? And because the flight was delayed, he/she missed his/her last chance?

Quoting brilondon (Reply 20):Personally I think that if any body, except for blueflyer of course, would go the extra steps to make sure that the man made his connection should be given special accolades and maybe a bonus for all those involved. The fact that the captain radioed ahead the wheels were in motion before the flight from SFO even landed makes believe in humanity and that there still good people out there.

Certainly, and I'm not taking anything away from the involved parties here. They obviously were trying to do the right thing, and good on them for it. But we probably won't know who was adversely affected, and to what extent.

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 34):Negativity or not, he has a point. What if there was someone on that flight who was going to visit his/her dying mom? And because the flight was delayed, he/she missed his/her last chance?

Proves, yet again, you can't please everyone. What of diversions due to medical reasons? The needs of one will affect the majority. I have had many times in my 26 years of flying where I have had to deal with people who were "outraged", "can't believe this is happening to me", "what about my flight" (and those are actual words from people who were going to 'inconvenienced') because of the diversion. Zero, and I mean ZERO, compassion for the person in need of medical attention.

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 34):But we probably won't know who was adversely affected, and to what extent.

To that I say again, I just hope that people show compassion when they need it.

Could they have made a PA announcement saying something like.. 'Would anyone on this flight be inconvenienced greatly if we delayed departure due to (insert calamity)?' or 'Would y'all mind waiting a few minutes so a fellow passenger has a last chance to see her mother before she dies?'

That would then give the other passengers a chance to speak up in the event that THEY had an equally pressing matter to attend to.

Definitely Kudos to my colleagues. Its not every day you hear the GOOD that airlines and airport workers do for complete strangers. Regardless of carrier, regardless of location, regardless of industry. This good deed should be recognized. They didn't have to. They could simply said "we go on time" and no one would have batted an eye.

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 34):Negativity or not, he has a point. What if there was someone on that flight who was going to visit his/her dying mom? And because the flight was delayed, he/she missed his/her last chance?

Quoting brilondon (Reply 20):
Personally I think that if any body, except for blueflyer of course, would go the extra steps to make sure that the man made his connection should be given special accolades and maybe a bonus for all those involved. The fact that the captain radioed ahead the wheels were in motion before the flight from SFO even landed makes believe in humanity and that there still good people out there.

Certainly, and I'm not taking anything away from the involved parties here. They obviously were trying to do the right thing, and good on them for it. But we probably won't know who was adversely affected, and to what extent.

I was commenting on the article as was presented, it did not say that there was another passenger whose mother was dying. It was just a nice story about what people should do in a civilized society.

Note to airlines...don's do the right thing because a bunch of nerds on a-net will criticize your decision...on the other hand if uou go for the on time the same bunch of dweebs will complain about it!

On 24JAN UA4259 departed fewer than 10 minutes behind schedule -- and several minutes earlier than the day before & after it. The flight arrived into LBB on-time.

It's a nice "feel good" story but there's nothing unusual about it, and UA's company policy encourages flights to await connecting passengers -- within reason. And this is a classic example ... the flight left several minutes late but arrived on-time.

It baffles me that so many people want to act like this is something that almost never happens & the ground/flight crew deserves accolades when it reality it happens every single day, and standing passengers in that situation (minor wait that won't interrupt an on-time arrival) is almost never unheard of. I hate to be a downer here, but if his SFO-IAH flight arrived even 10 minutes later, his IAH-LBB flight would've departed without him.

Holding the last flight out is done frequently, but there are many factors involved. First, is the aircraft needed at the other end or is it going to simply sit overnight. Does the late flight from the East Coast to the West turn around as a redeye back to the east coast with numerous connections? Is the crew going to time out if the flight is delayed significantly? Or does the flight crew have a flight the next AM that will be delayed due to rest rules if the inbound is delayed? Lots of factors need to be conssidered!

Quoting PDX88 (Reply 6):As much negativity that my airline gets, we do have employees who care.

You are absolutely right PDX88! My company does a lot of stuff like this, but it seems to be of little interest to the media. They don't hesitate to trash us, repeatedly, but items like this are seldom given any attention. Oh, one exception, WN can do no wrong and would have definitely received coverage for this event if it had happened on them.
I am very pleased to see that, for once, a carrier other than WN, is applauded. Great job United.

Quoting manny (Reply 47):I wonder how other passengers on that flight felt. What if one of those delayed passengers missed out on paying last respects to a parent.

Why does everyone keep asking this question trying to make this into a big deal? United employees did the right thing the flight to LBB was only delayed a few minutes and yet United and the employees get crucified for doing their job which is to provide great customer service to all our customers. And while United does not always succeed in providing customer service there are many employees who everyday do there job and provide great customer service to United customers.

So for all of you negative people here I have a question what should United employees have done in this situation should they have let the plane leave because of other passengers on the plane or did United employees do the right thing by delaying the plane a few minutes for this passengers?

Because had the plane left IAH for LBB on time without this passenger I'm pretty sure the response to the headline "United passenger misses chance to say goodbye to dying mom because airline refused to wait" would be scathing to say the least and from some of the responses I have read on this forum I get the feeling that some of you wish that was the headline which is really sad.

That reminds me of the WN story last year. A WN captain personally held the plane and stood in the boarding area to address a connecting passenger by name, say he was sorry for his loss, and escort him on the flight. The guy's daughter's child had been killed by the step-father, so this guy was rushing to DEN on short notice to be with the family.

Quoting EWRCabincrew (Reply 52):Quoting jayunited (Reply 51):
I get the feeling that some of you wish that was the headline which is really sad.

BINGO How sad, but true.

I get that feeling as well. It was nice gesture and the thread seems to have a few people all up in arms and whining about the delay which was only a few minutes and the flights were all relatively on time. They of course make up their own story which they try to make it seem like it was the coming of the Apocalypse.

Quoting compensateme (Reply 4):The article describes the incident as something "that almost never happens," which is completely false. Flights, especially the final departures of the day, are routinely delayed awaiting (delayed) incoming passengers. Nor does there have to be a special reason. Unfortunately, we typically only hear about those occasions in which a flight stands passengers, which makes normal things seem so non-normal

Exactly. A couple of summers ago I was flying back home from WRO to ORD via MUC with LH. Their first flight was late due to some air traffic controllers dispute, which cut very close to the MUC-ORD flight leaving. There were about 7 people going to ORD. When our plane from WRO landed in MUC at parked at the remote stop LH had the bus for everyone, but for us going to ORD they had a man with a sign "Chicago". We were taken in a minivan, stopped at a remote location for border control to have our passports stamped and driven directly to the gate to board our plane for ORD. Now, that the true airline service.

Now, one time on AirJamaica from MBJ to ORD we waited for a lady from some remote island who could not part with her goat only to find out that she would not sit in the middle between two white people. There were a lot of talk involving the captain holding the flight for extra hour and a half. So, I guess it did not pay to wait for her in the first place....

True to form, I had a passenger bring this up at work today. She arrived late for our last flight of the night to her destination and she insisted that we hold the plane (and delay about 180 passengers) for her, because she'd heard that United did it and therefore this meant that all airlines did it at any time for any reason. Her reason was that she couldn't miss work tomorrow, but I couldn't help but think that if it was that important, maybe she should've arrived at the airport more than 40 minutes before her flight.

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